LEXINGTON, Ky. - This time Tennessee's upset bid never had a chance.
Instead, Kentucky emphatically exacted its revenge for last month's basketball loss by handing the Volunteers their most lopsided defeat of the season.
The No. 13 Wildcats buried Tennessee under a barrage of first-half 3-pointers and led by as many as 28 points in an 83-58 Southeastern Conference rout of the abject Vols at Rupp Arena on Tuesday night, three weeks after Tennessee stunned then-N0. 4 Kentucky 82-80 in Knoxville.
"I didn't see it coming at all, till after the ball was tipped off and we weren't pushing the ball and we just looked like zombies out there," Vols forward Admiral Schofield said after scoring a team-high 17 points.
Kentucky's Malik Monk takes a three point shot under pressure from Tennessee's Jordan Bowden (23) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, in Lexington, Ky. (AP Photo/James Crisp)"I just know we get another day to recoup, and I know that this team is going to fight back, because this is not a team that stays down, and I'm just looking for that team that's going to fight back right now."
Kentucky's 28-point lead midway through the second half was the largest deficit Tennessee (14-12, 6-7) has faced this season, surpassing the 21-point advantage current No. 1 Gonzaga built in the first half of an eventual 10-point win against the Vols in Nashville in December.
Prior to the Valentine's Day whipping, Tennessee's largest margin of defeat this season was 13 points against UT-Chattanooga in the season opener and at SEC contender Florida last month.
"We were really just gosh awful," Vols coach Rick Barnes said.
Kentucky (21-5, 11-2), which made just six of 24 3-pointers in last month's upset, drained 10 of 18 attempts from beyond the arc, and the barrage was too much to overcome as the Vols sought the first season sweep of their border rivals since the 1998-99 season.
Malik Monk and Derek Willis did most of the damage with each making four 3s, while Tennessee shot just 31 percent from the field during a first half in which it fell behind by 17 points.
Entering the game, Tennessee's coaches emphasized the importance of not allowing a fourth player to provide offensive support to Monk, De'Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo, Kentucky's trio of star freshmen.
Instead the Vols allowed Willis to get loose for wide-open looks, and the 6-foot-9 senior made them pay, much like he did last season against Tennessee in Rupp when he poured in 25 points and made seven 3s.
"The exact thing we emphasized we let happen," Schofield said, "and we let Willis go for a big game. When their 4 man is effective in their offense, that's when they have explosive games like that. When you shut their 4 man out, like when they played us (in Knoxville), both of their 4 men, (Wenyen) Gabriel and Willis, combined for (six) points.
"That was the X-factor. We knew that coming into this game, and we just totally did not follow the game plan."
It was perhaps the most disappointing attribute of Tennessee's putrid performance.
"When you break down the way we did on the defensive end," Barnes said, "it'll tell you that you're a step behind both physically and mentally."
Trailing by 15 at halftime, Tennessee never mounted a serious semblance of a comeback as the Wildcats nearly doubled their lead while the Vols' top scorers, Robert Hubbs III (seven points) and Grant Williams (eight), both struggled.
Jordan Bone scored 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, but Tennessee's other guards - Jordan Bowden, Lamonte Turner and Shembari Phillips - combined to shoot 2-of-18 from the field.
"I'm just sorry we didn't give them a better game," Barnes said, "because I think we're better than we played tonight. There's not many positives I can take from our end. I thought Jordan Bone for us really tried to do some things, but we had too many guys that didn't do what we expect from them."
After winning four straight games, Tennessee has lost three of its past four.
"I feel like we were a little high on ourselves," Bone said, "because we had beaten them at home a couple weeks back. We kind of thought it was going to be easy. I could just tell by the attitude of the guys walking onto the court - I mean, it's good to have confidence, but we weren't together at the beginning and we didn't execute our game plan, and they killed us."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.